Limited edition of 500 copies. "Following Mahmood Refat's Mort Aux Vaches CD, here is another real Middle Eastern composer, Tarek Atoui. He was born in Lebanon in 1980, moved to France in 1988 and studied at the Conservatory of Paris. Although his work is based in the field of the electro-acoustics, it's all computer based, using Max/Msp. Much of his work is made for theatre. There have not been many recordings available, but surely this may change after releasing on the ever high profile label Staalplaat. Much of this info I culled from the internet as Staalplaat never gives much information, so I was a bit surprised by what I heard. Many beats rolling over each other, hardly in a way that would induce any form of dance music and from the rhythms more abstractions are made in the computer. High pitched, quickly moving. Some of these beats could pass on a extreme breakcore music, hardcore gabber beats, but in a non sequential way, as to avoid any resemblance to dance music. In the pieces were the beats are down, either in tempo or in presence, Atoui plays music that I think is much more interesting. For instance in the final track he plays an interesting piece of music based on what could be Middle Eastern field recordings and remote electronics. I think it's the most interesting piece of the CD. In other pieces, such as the third, the nerve and hectic is nice too. One could argue that Atoui plays some nice form of plunderphonics in a true original form." --Frans de Ward